Volcanism in Antarctica: 200 Million Years of Subduction, Rifting and Continental Break-up
CONTAINS OPEN ACCESS

This memoir is the first to review all of Antarctica's volcanism between 200 million years ago and the Present. The region is still volcanically active. The volume is an amalgamation of in-depth syntheses, which are presented within distinctly different tectonic settings. Each is described in terms of (1) the volcanology and eruptive palaeoenvironments; (2) petrology and origin of magma; and (3) active volcanism, including tephrochronology. Important volcanic episodes include: astonishingly voluminous mafic and felsic volcanic deposits associated with the Jurassic break-up of Gondwana; the construction and progressive demise of a major Jurassic to Present continental arc, including back-arc alkaline basalts and volcanism in a young ensialic marginal basin; Miocene to Pleistocene mafic volcanism associated with post-subduction slab-window formation; numerous Neogene alkaline volcanoes, including the massive Erebus volcano and its persistent phonolitic lava lake, that are widely distributed within and adjacent to one of the world's major zones of lithospheric extension (the West Antarctic Rift System); and very young ultrapotassic volcanism erupted subglacially and forming a world-wide type example (Gaussberg).
Chapter 2.2a Palmer Land and Graham Land volcanic groups (Antarctic Peninsula): volcanology
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Published:May 27, 2021
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CiteCitation
Teal R. Riley, Philip T. Leat, 2021. "Chapter 2.2a Palmer Land and Graham Land volcanic groups (Antarctic Peninsula): volcanology", Volcanism in Antarctica: 200 Million Years of Subduction, Rifting and Continental Break-up, J. L. Smellie, K. S. Panter, A. Geyer
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Abstract
The break-up of Gondwana during the Early–Middle Jurassic was associated with flood basalt volcanism in southern Africa and Antarctica (Karoo–Ferrar provinces), and formed one of the most extensive episodes of continental magmatism of the Phanerozoic. Contemporaneous felsic magmatism along the proto-Pacific margin of Gondwana has been referred to as a silicic large igneous province, and is exposed extensively in Patagonian South America, the Antarctic Peninsula and elsewhere in West Antarctica. Jurassic-age silicic volcanism in Patagonia is defined as the Chon Aike province and forms one of the most voluminous silicic provinces globally. The Chon Aike province is predominantly pyroclastic in origin, and is characterized by crystal tuffs and ignimbrite units of rhyolite composition. Silicic volcanic rocks of the once contiguous Antarctic Peninsula form a southward extension of the Chon Aike province and are also dominated by silicic ignimbrite units, with a total thickness exceeding 1 km. The ignimbrites include high-grade rheomorphic ignimbrites, as well as unwelded, lithic-rich ignimbrites. Rhyolite lava flows, air-fall horizons, debris-flow deposits and epiclastic deposits are volumetrically minor, occurring as interbedded units within the ignimbrite succession.
- Africa
- Antarctic Peninsula
- Antarctica
- Argentina
- basalts
- calderas
- correlation
- crust
- dates
- emplacement
- flood basalts
- Gondwana
- Graham Land
- igneous rocks
- ignimbrite
- Jurassic
- Karoo Supergroup
- Larsen Ice Shelf
- lava flows
- Lower Jurassic
- magmatism
- Mesozoic
- Middle Jurassic
- outcrops
- Patagonia
- pyroclastics
- rheomorphism
- rhyolites
- siliceous composition
- South America
- Southern Africa
- U/Pb
- volcanic features
- volcanic rocks
- West Antarctica
- Palmer Land
- James Ross Island Volcanic Group
- Jason Peninsula
- Mount Poster Formation
- Trinity Peninsula Group
- Chon Aike Province
- Mapple Formation
- Ferrar Province
- Kenney Glacier Formation
- Palmer Land Volcanic Group
- Graham Land Volcanic Group
- Mapple Glacier